The collective hive mind of TouchArcade couldn't possibly be more excited for Machinegun Jetpack, unless of course Halfbrick succumbs to our demands of including their own Phil Larsen as a playable character. Anyway, it seems that the previous video released by the Australia-based development studio was just the first of a series slowly teasing the game before its release in the (hopefully) not too distant future.

If this is the first you've heard of Machinegun Jetpack, it's a game we've been following for what feels like an eternity that continues the adventures of Barry Steakfries previously featured in Monster Dash [99�] and Age of Zombies [$2.99]. Like those two games, Machinegun Jetpack takes a familiar game type (in this case, the cave flyer) and turns it up to 11, as evident by the previous video and made even more obvious by the latest surprisingly Phil-less developer diary:

I'm loving all the power-ups included in the game, and it's music to my ears to hear that there's potentially even more coming via updates. This game looks so incredibly over the top, I can't wait to play it.

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For relative Poker rookies like myself and my friends, keeping track of who does what and who has what gets progressively harder as the drinks flow and more and more people join in on the action. Card manufacturer Bicycle just released a new iPad app that might help. It's called Bicycle Poker Night [$4.99], and it's merely a game tracking device. You use your real cards on a real table, while the app keeps track of the blinds, the chips, and everything else for you. As long as you keep the whiskey off your tablet, it should prove to be a handy tool.

Hilariously, its super elaborate in the visual department. As you'll see, you can drop in pictures for your pals, and watch the action unfold on a virtual table. I'd imagine you'll see a good bit of promotional content, too, if that lower right-hand corner is indicative of future plans.

Just thought I'd point this out to you if you're into Poker. I'd imagine that a lot of App Store hounds are, so this should gain a lot steam.

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If you would have asked me when I was sitting outside of the local Apple Store all night in line for the original iPhone in late June of 2007 with $600 burning a hole in my pocket if I thought this phone would spawn a device family that would be the catalyst to what could be the biggest shake-up of the gaming industry in decades, I would have let out a derisive snort and gone back to playing my Nintendo DS. However, the iOS ecosystem seems to be doing exactly that� A few weeks ago we heard from EA CEO John Riccitiello who explained that consoles are shrinking and the iPad is their fastest growing platform, meanwhile, Nintendo significantly dropped the price of their 3DS that is struggling to compete in a world dominated by smartphones.

The latest comes from Epic Games President Mike Capps who in an interview with Industry Gamers discussed the real threat that is the (potential) iPhone 8:

"Before the problem was between the consoles and PC where they had very different levels. The power of your PC could be 100 times the power of somebody else's PC. This time the problem could be mobile. If you look at the ridiculous acceleration of iPhone hardware and technology, trying to find a sweet spot for tech to make your mobile game… I mean, what would your mobile game look like in 2015? Who knows how fast that's going to operate, but you can bet it's going to be faster than an Xbox 360," he said.

"So I think that's the real challenge for us now, rather than worrying about the difference between a couple consoles and some order of magnitude, whether 3X or 4X. It's about how do we deal with iPhone 8… if you watch where the gamers are going that's where they are. Your iPhone 8 will probably plug into your TV, or better yet, wirelessly connect to your television set to give you that big screen gaming experience with good sound. So really, what's the point of those next-gen consoles? It's a very interesting situation to be looking at. That's what we're starting to think about more… not how do we scale from some Nintendo platform to some other future console," he concluded.

It's an interesting problem, and has been the topic of discussion with a few friends of mine lately as current generations of consoles approach the end of their life cycle. A big part of the business for home consoles is getting an install base of hardware that you can utilize to sell software for upwards of ten years. With iOS devices getting refreshed on a yearly basis combined with substantially cheaper, instantly available games, how long is the dedicated console market going to be appealing? We're already seeing iOS devices erode the previously untouchable dominance of Nintendo in the portable sector, and the features of the "iPhone 8" Capps discusses above largely already exist today� They're just not being utilized in any meaningful way yet.

Epic later released a clarification stating that they're still very much invested in next-gen consoles as well as PC gaming, but it's hard to deny the way gaming seems to be going.

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Orange Pixel's Meganoid [$.99] now has more content than before. The ultra-stupid hard platform game has been updated with a serious dosage of levels, bringing the 'normal' mode up to a stellar 90 different offerings. Sarge Mode (read: hard mode) is now up to 80 courtesy of this latest update pass, which also ushered in Game Center support, several bug fixes and tweaks, and the once Android-exclusive "Oreah Mode," a backwards variant of the game. A total of 50 levels from this have been added.

On the studio's official blog, Orange Pixel notes that it's attempting to bring the total of all three modes to 100 levels, which explains the whole "more to come line" we've heard. When not dropping more content into Meganoid, it's busy with its next platformer, INC.

If you haven't checked out Meganoid, feel free to read our review. It's a good mash-up game with super responsive controls and a fun lo-fi art and sound direction. It might be a little too hard for its own good at times, but we dug it overall.

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We've been following the activity of gaming legend Graeme Devine's GRL Games since he left Apple and decided to start his own studio. A chat at GDC later revealed that the motivation for his departure from the company had a whole new layer of awesome to it: He just wanted to make games with his daughter. Since then they've released Full Deck Solitaire [Free] as well as Full Deck Poker Solitaire [$1.99 / Free].

Tomorrow, the Full Deck family of card games will get its third entry: Full Deck Hold'Em. We've had our hands on an early copy of the game, and aside from being an all-around awesome iPad-powered poker experience, the iPad 2 video chat functionality is just awesome. You can see a glimpse of how it works in the following video:

We'll have a full review of the game when it's released tomorrow night, but in the meantime, I hope the video chat implementation in Full Deck Hold'Em spurs similar integration in other online games. It makes playing with friends so much more fun, compared to say, just taking your turn in Words With Friends where there's little to no interaction beyond just dropping some tiles on the board.

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Tribase Studios' first-person running game, Requiem [$1.99], should be better. In a recent update, the studio added some graphical and optimization tweaks for users with third-gen devices, bug fixes, and has also re-worked tutorial for the iPad version. The cost? Free!

We gave the game a go after it generated a decent amount of buzz on our message board. It's like a stripped down, more tightly constructed Mirror's Edge. Taking place in a boy's dream, you're charged with running from a giant thug, all the while barreling through an environment filled with objects you need to jump, crouch, crawl, or spin away from. The perspective is a welcome touch in a market increasingly cluttered with uninspired hallway or military shooters. The visual direction is pretty radical, too, just like DICE's first-person runner.

Man, all this really reminds me that Mirror's Edge 2 needs to actually happen.

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Earlier this July, League of Evil [Free] creator Ravenous Games bumped the price of League of Evil back to its normal-ish tag of $1.99. The studio has once again fiddled with the price, though I'd imagine the new one won't be the cause of too many e-groans. For the next 24 hours the game is $0. Free, guys! Free!

For those of you not in the know, League of Evil is the App Store's rough equivalent of Team Meat's imaginative, but sadistic action platform game Super Meat Boy. Boasting tons of levels, an fantastic lo-fi presentation, and a lot of challenge, League of Evil was an easy recommendation for us to make. At this price, it's sorta a steal.

We contacted Ravenous on the Twitters to hear exactly why it decided to cut the cost of the game. I mean, who knows? Ravenous could be celebrating a staffers' birthday over there and if so, we want in on the back-slapping and cake. In the meanwhile, though, I guess we'll accept the free game.

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One thing about Shift 2: Unleashed [$5.99/HD], just real quick: Don't bother. If I had to summarize EA's latest Need for Speed sim, it certainly wouldn't involve the word "unleashed." This is about as misleading a subtitle you could attach to something so tame and afraid to do anything outside its comfort zone.

I'm still high off the faster, crazier NFS: Hot Pursuit and the dialed back Real Racing 2, I think. Shift 2 exists in a limbo-like spot somewhere in between those titles, with a slightly heavier weight toward the realistic racing, which is something the franchise has only recently started dabbling in. We loved the first Need for Speed: Shift because it nailed what we wanted from a console approximation and it was a convincing, competitive iOS sim-racer. This sequel hits those same notes, but the standard, and thus what I expect, has raised since.

The idiots on your morning commute are probably evidence enough that passing the driver's test doesn't make you a great driver, just the same as Shift 2's isn't a great game because its basics are up to snuff. The sum of A Bunch of Cars and A Bunch of Tracks doesn't amount to much, particularly because there's little to differentiate the vehicles from one another beyond their look and stats. At least upgrading the speed, tires, brakes and all that jazz gives your ride a feel akin to actual driving. The tilt-turning sensitivity is as stellar as it's ever been in these iOS versions of NFS, particularly when turning off the driving assists.

Vehicles move faster as you move up the tiers, graduating from the D-class to C to B and so on, which is a structure so straightforward I found myself struggling to stay interested. I didn't feel like I was grew and improved as I moved up the ladder�more like I was checking chores off a to-do list that rewarded me with more mediocrity. Unleashed worked great for scratching the upgrade itch the series always gives me, at least.

Speaking of which, EA, it'd be far more enjoyable to let me improve cars at my own pace. Stop nagging me to spend real money on in-game cash every couple of races, yeah? Those incessant pop-up ads are really annoying. On the other hand, I didn't mind the interruptions encouraging me to use Origin, EA's new digital distribution service. I dig its implementation here�I tap the Origin icon and I can send challenges to current friends, add new ones, and play around with my profile. It's early, but the potential here for a universal in-game social network for EA titles is fantastic, and I can't wait to see how future games expand on the basics of daring someone to do better than you.

Most of all, I was caught off guard by the demanding difficulty of Unleashed, actually, and I consider myself a solid driver (at least when it comes to video games, let's not talk about my real-world insurance). Earning stars for first-place finishes and stylish, flawless maneuvering earns stars, and even at the C-level I struggled to earn enough to advance to the next set of time trials or 1v1 duels. I ended up replaying older races endlessly before burning out on Need for Speed playing it safe.

Shift 2 understands the racing genre like the best of 'em, but coasting on its competence and expecting us to adore what others (including EA) have done better isn't enough. So, yeah, once again: Don't bother. This is a bland, boring racing game compared not only to previous iOS Need For Speed titles, but also other racers already on the App Store. Wait for the inevitable iOS port of Need for Speed: The Run, which is so fundamentally different from the rest of the series that I gotta believe it'll be the refreshing change of pace we all wanted.

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We got a look at a few screenshots of Speedway GP 2011 last month, and while we're still incredibly light on details regarding what's going to be in the actual game, they shot us over a new trailer today which features an entire six seconds of gameplay footage.

Check it out:

I'm… oddly excited for this game. Games that have to do with motorcycles and dirt bikes tend to work really well with the tilt controls of the iPhone, and I've had a lot of fun with games like 2XL Supercross [$4.99]. I think what will make or break Speedway GP 2011 is how heavily they lean on the licensed and "official" aspect of the game to cover up any potential lack of features. If there's a compelling career mode, I'll be one happy camper.

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Oyatsukai's Fractal Combat [$1.99] is an aggressively arcade-y third-person aerial combat game that initially reminded me a lot of Rogue Squadron. It isn't a licensed product and its universe is nowhere near as fleshed out as the Star Wars fiction, but it does have a similar over-the-top sci-fi style coupled with a simple control scheme and targeting systems. While it'll bore you at times with its uninspired instance-based content, Fractal Combat's click-treat action and overall ease of use is entertaining in bursts. This isn't a gold medal winner; it's an okay game with strong drivers that'll keep you invested in an otherwise shallow experience.

On a mechanical level, this is a third-person shooter first and foremost, which charges you with the wholesale slaughter of various randomly generated ships and ground-to-air missiles in a series of rote missions. As for the flight part of the deal, this is more of a hover game: momentum, speed, and general stick-jocker-y aren't things that this does well.

In part, this is due to the controls. The game trades finesse for slick tilt functionality that adjusts the dead zone based on how you're holding your device. On the other hand, the super forgiving auto-targeting systems and relatively dumb AI saps combat any kind of combat nuance, too, which leaves you with a game purely focused on destruction.

It almost goes without saying, but Fractal Combat doesn't hold up in the context of other flight games due to its arcade-centric, baby's-first-flight game approach. The real meat of is simply in the thrill of the kill and the satisfaction of a "mission complete." It's built to be simple, in other words, and it clicked with me pretty fast as a result.

One of the most effective drivers outside of the core action is its persistent upgrades. As you play instances, you'll be given in-game cash that can be exchanged for new weapons, new HUDs, and even new aircraft. New pathways unlock as you play, meaning you'll spend a lot of time exploring new levels and progressing, all the while going back to old levels to grind.

Most levels are simple search-and-destroy missions seemingly created from the same uninspired software that auto-generates RPG fetch quests. The elaborate HUD gives you a clear indication of where your targets are in relation to you at all times, making the missions pretty easy to clear. The HUD will also tell you when your enemy radar is being jammed, when to fire, and it can also point out shield "energy" drops, all in the name of convenience.

Really, I think all the problems of Fractal Combat can be boiled down to two words: safe and uninspired. If it had the slightest creative spark, it'd be enough to really pull me in. As it is, this is a fully functional arcade action game with cheap thrills and an upgrade system that, if it hooks you, should keep you plugging away for 10-15 minute bursts. I wish there was more, but there's enough here to recommend a look.

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A huge update for Kard Combat [Free] wormed its way through Apple certification today and is now available for all owners of the premium version of the delicious card game. The tentpole addition is the four new mages: Demon, Chaos, Deception, and Arcane. Each deck adds a special a slew of special spells and new cards to use, and each is free for owners of the game. Two new modes of play, Challenge and time multiplayer, have been added as well, shoring up a suite of options that were already pretty satisfying to the player base. The former mode, by the way, is a basic riff on the Tower, while the latter should make for some much, much quicker online battles.

An update wouldn't be an update without fixes and tweaks, right? New visuals, new sound, and new animations have been added in addition to multiplayer slot, mana counter, and several other bug fixes. Also, you'll now be able to switch the difficulty of the game mid-campaign instead of having to start over.

If you bothered with the full game unlock for $9.99, all of this will be free as soon as you grab the update. For others, these decks and modes are available via IAP, much like several other options in the game.

We dug Kard Combat in our initial look and that review still stands. In brief, it's a flawed game with personality and depth that make up for its weak spots. Updates like these certainly make for a stronger offering.

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Eggcode's Pixel Ghost [0.99] is a retro side scrolling game, with the same style of play as Squareball [$0.99 / Review] from 2009. Your pixelated red ghost bounces up and down automatically, as you try to maneuver it through the level within the time limit, by moving the background. That's right, you don't move the ghost, you move the maze, by dragging the entire level left or right.� And you help the ghost avoid stuff, like spikes, bats, shooty things or holes in the maze. Some blocks disappear after being touched and sometimes there's no floor on the maze, so there's little room for error.

This game is quirky, because you're looking at your IOS screen, which has a television screen inside of it, which has the game playing on it� It's like you're watching the game being played on a television set, hence the word 'pixel' in the title.� Because the whole TV doesn't fit on the IOS screen, your perspective pans up and down, following the bouncing ghost.� Plus the game background rotates continuously and to top it off, the television is on a slight angle, which all adds to the overall visual quirkiness.

The scoring is also unusual. There's coins to collect which earn points, but if you don't finish the level, you score zero. After several attempts, my high score was still zilch, so I started ignoring the coins and just tried to finish a level, which isn't easy as they're quite long. During this, the music plays, which is some form of unusual experimental electronica. Not necessarily bad, but let's call it different.

Why did I play this game? It's the delight of completing a level, finally getting a score, and unlocking the next frustrating level.� The maze looks colorful and pixelated. I started to enjoy the satisfying beep of coins being collected and the unusual soundtrack. This game is so obscure it's not listed on the developers website, has no posts in the TouchArcade thread and is barely recognized by Google. And, I guess, the little red pixelated ghost looks cute when it arrives at the start or squeezes into a gap between two blocks.

Pixel Ghost has five worlds, with five levels in each, making 25 levels in total. I've finished exactly three levels, which is probably embarrassingly poor performance, but I'd like to see how World 2 is different, which probably means reduced sleep tonight. If you pride yourself on collecting the weird things the App Store has to offer, don't miss Pixel Ghost.

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We've been hearing for a while that a mobile version of Battlefield 3 will launch alongside the PC and console releases later this fall. While we still don't have confirmation on that, we do know now for sure-sure that Battlefield 3 is coming to iOS. EA confirmed this to Pocket Gamer, though left any other meaningful details out for the time being.

If Bad Company 2 for mobile was a solid indication of future direction for the mobile versions of DICE's shooters, chances are BF3 for mobile will follow the events of its source material. BF3 proper is set in Iraq during 2014, just as an earthquake ravages the region. It follows the story of Henry 'Black' Blackburn and his five-man squad deployed in the region at the time of the quake.

In other EA upcoming game news, Bullfrog's ridiculously good PC theme park simulation game, Theme Park, is also set for a release on iOS. No details have been offered quite yet, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that this will just a straight-up port of the cutesy task manager.

We'll give you more on these just as soon as we can.

[Via Pocket Gamer]

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Emberwind [$0.99 / HD] is a delightful 2d action adventure side-scrolling platformer with fantasy themes, published by Chillingo and ported to IOS by Innogiant. It was originally released on PC / Mac by TimeTrap, waaay back around 1996.� Thats …umm… about fifteen years ago. And yet, it's still a wonderful game to play today, on our fancy new hi-tech iOS touch screens.

This platform game has a fantasy storyline. �The city of Grendale has been besieged by gremlins led by the demon war-lord, CandleFinger. And the King has suddenly gone missing. As the local watchman, 'Kindle' the heroic fire-gnome bravely sets out to investigate. He rides into each level on a giant white snow-owl, called 'Wick'. His adventures unfold through cut-scenes and in-game dialog with the characters he meets as you unlock� the world map. While there's a storyline, you can still replay levels for better scores, or just for pleasure.

The game involves running, jumping, collecting acorns and diamonds for points, and collecting food for health � all as you'd expect from a platform game � but you also mash the attack button to fight nasty gremlins with your 'Cane of Justice'.� When confronted by a particularly large mob of gremlins, the button mashing sometimes feels excessive, as they require multiple hits to dispatch, but if you chain together several hits in a row, you'll earn a power burst which blows them all away. Problem solved!

As you progress you gain additional attacks and abilities, like bowling over enemies with a dashing death-roll. Little creatures named "brownies" can be found who gift you special-attacks, like shooting fireballs from your cane, which is rather handy. I've seen some comments online that the game is too long and that the gremlin fighting eventually becomes repetitive, but I'm still enjoying it and there's boss-fights and levels where you fly around on Wick, to spice things up.

There's heaps to explore, with locations underground, indoors, underwater, on sailing boats and even amongst the clouds. You can roam quite freely and there's more than one route through most levels. Houses can be found and rescuing the villagers inside from house-squatting gremlins earns extra points.� If you look hard enough, you'll find hidden areas and treasure chests, perhaps even some golden apples. Three small fireflies follow you on your travels and glow when secrets are nearby, so it pays to keep an eye on them.

This game has many nice touches to enjoy.� If you ignite the fireplace inside a house, smoke pours out the chimney when you return outdoors. Also, animations occur on the world map to tie in with the story being told. If you ignite a streetlight, it kills any gremlins nearby and becomes your re-spawn point if you die, so you don't need to re-start from the beginning each time. Once a level is completed, Kindle must return to Wick, the big white bird, to soar off to the next level, although if you're lucky you might stumble upon a short-cut back to the start.

Emberwind really feels like an epic fantasy adventure, with layered backgrounds, a suitably dramatic music score, and gameplay which can be downright challenging; there's always something going on.� It may have originated over 15 years ago, but it doesn't feel dated. In fact, Emberwind compares favorably against most modern platform games, so I'm surprised it hasn't received more attention. It looks, sounds and plays great on my iPad, so although some iOS ports are not particularly successful, this old platformer from the last millennium has definitely still got it.

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Have you ever played Sim City and taken a perverse enjoyment from surrounding your residential zones in power plants, landfills and industrial zones while they wither away to abandoned slums? Or is that just me? Either way, there's something for each of us in Megacity HD [$1.99]. Despite its looks and inspiration, this is a puzzle game, not a building sim. And it's a little rough around the edges. But it's smart, and it has the heart of a city builder � with none of the Farmvill-ian frills we're all too used to these days.

You're presented with a 6�7 grid of empty grass, and a queue showing the current tile you can place and four upcoming tiles. These tiles represent buildings and civic projects: houses, power plants, hospitals and the like. Everything but the residential tiles modify the spaces around themselves in unique ways. Think of it as property values � while the properties on the outgoing side of a water treatment center may not mind it, the properties in the path of the intake probably aren't going to be worth as much as they otherwise would be. Megacity HD applies that kind of logic to parks (great for the whole neighborhood), landfills (no one wants to live near one) and many other locales. As you raise or lower a space's value, the tile on it gets a visual upgrade or downgrade to match. Slums ahoy!

To succeed you need to reach a certain value of housing in each column when it's positioned on the far left side. You'll start off with a softball goal of four points per column. If you can increase the value of four houses out of six spaces by just one point each, you'll meet your goal and increase your overall score. Then the whole board slides to the left, and it's the next column on the right that's being scored.

Because every column gets scored eventually and your goal keeps rising, you can't just shove all the negative modifiers off to the far right and forget about them � they'll come back to bite you in the end. But using the right edge can be a valid strategy for some things because fresh tiles don't pick up modifiers from old buildings. You can't choose which tiles you'll place, just where you'll place them, so balancing the positives, the negatives and enough residential in each column is quite the challenge. The genius of Megacity HD lies in the way it will keep you thinking six full turns ahead at all times.

This genius is slightly diminished by the luck-of-the-draw aspects. There are times I've found myself begging the game for a single residential tile to pop up, and my best score by far was in a play-through that rarely pulled out the big negatives. For competition on truly even ground, it would be great to see an update that brings in challenge modes with set tile sequences. Custom music support would also be nice � the orchestral track is impressive, but won't always fit everyone's tastes and moods.

But first things first: Game Center leaderboards are missing, and they're badly needed. There's a local scoreboard and a custom online leaderboard, but neither is implemented very well. The developer has mentioned in our discussion thread that he hopes to bring in Game Center support soon, thankfully. Hopefully the in-game achievement system will also make it over to the service, but I find myself missing those less. Megacity HD includes a leveling system with seven unlockable tiles to earn, each with its own special property. Earning them has been more than enough of a meta-game reward for my needs.

If you're up for a bit of a challenge, you'll find one waiting for you in Megacity HD. You don't need to be brilliant to enjoy it � the score of each square is displayed on screen, so if you can handle a bit of basic addition you'll be fine. All you really need to do is pay attention. In return, you'll find a satisfying puzzle experience that leaves you tantalized for one more shot at building the perfect city.

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It's pretty rare to see an iOS strategy game that not only has a captivating story, sound gameplay mechanics, and challenging difficulty, but also manages to accomplish all this while not being a tower defense derivative. Companions [$4.99 / Lite] manages to achieve all this and more, and leads to a great experience for those iPad owners looking to try out a real strategy game.

Companions offers two game modes: a quick play 'Single Map' mode that has you pick from a set of maps and jump right into the fray, and a campaign mode, which is where the vast majority of content lies. The campaign mode is a fixed story that follows your adventurous group as they take on hordes of enemies while trying to save the world. I actually found the underlying campaign story compelling, as the game's writing does a great job explaining why each of your individual teammates ends up in this fight against evil. Also, it's refreshing to see each party member actually have a personality and want to accomplish the end goal for their own personal reasons.

Companions controls almost like an RTS � players tap on individual team members and then tap on the enemies you want to attack. In addition to this simple attack mechanism, each party member also has special skills that are activated manually and are on a cool down. There are no auto-abilities, and your characters will not attack unless they are in range of the enemies (and facing the right direction). This requires you to constantly stay on top of the action, as a lapse in attention could mean the death of one of your four companions, which ends the game. Since death can happen quite suddenly, I would suggest quick saving as much as possible (although the game does auto-save at certain events). It's important to note that while the game can be difficult, it is certainly not cheap � good planning and management of your party almost always leads to certain victory.

One of the things that I think Companions absolutely nails is the variety of classes you can have on your team. When you start a game, the races of your four team members are always static (Minotaur, Elf, Human, and Dwarf). However, within each race are three different classes that not only bestow different physical stats, but also have different skill sets as well. While all the classes for each race follow an overall theme, each class can result in drastically different play styles. The variety in each class affects not only the way each adventurer plays, but how they interact with the group as a whole. It's a very well done system.

Companions also includes a comprehensive inventory system with (mostly) randomized drops, as well as an experience/leveling structure. This all leads to a higher likelihood of you wanting to start a new game to see how different classes interact with each other. The only thing I really wish the game incorporated was some kind of currency or item shop, as you're going to be finding a lot of equipment, and it just seems a shame that you're going to leave the vast majority of it on the ground since there's nothing you can do with it.

Gamers that have never played a deep strategy game or those that may be hesitant to try a title that is actually challenging need not worry � Companions features a somewhat comprehensive tutorial that does a good job explaining the general controls as well as providing a broad overview of each of the races and potential classes. While I thought the tutorial was well-done and should be mandatory for anyone just starting out, I did find it a little odd that the tutorial culminated with a survival-esque battle against monsters in which the player can never win. I imagine that it could possibly demotivate those newcomers looking to learn the mechanics. Then again, folks like that probably shouldn't be playing a game like this.

As evidenced above, it's pretty obvious that in order to survive in Companions decent micromanagement skills are almost necessary. That's why it's somewhat disappointing that the controls aren't quite as responsive as I would like. I found myself on multiple occasions trying to tap a particular character and not having it register. Also, while I am thankful for the group formation and party-wide controls, I wish I could have the option to only select part of my group, rather than the current "one or all" scheme. Admittedly, the 'tactical pause' (an in-game pause that allows you to stop the action while you plan things out, but only for a limited amount of time) does a good job of alleviating most of the control issues, making these concerns not as big an issue as they may be in other titles. You can check out this developer video for an explanation of how the tactical pause works.

Despite these minor complaints, I found Companions to be an enjoyable experience, and one that does the adventure strategy genre proud. �Furthermore, the developer has been quite active in our forums, addressing concerns and implementing bug fixes and suggestions on a regular basis. If you're looking for a good strategy adventure with some real depth, look no further and take the plunge into Companions.

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Here's a history lesson for you: way back in September of 2010, Parry Gripp (Internet celebrity and lead singer of Nerf Herder) chopped up a popular video of a cute animal persuasion and added his own soundtrack. Since then, Baby Monkey (Going Backwards On A Pig) has earwormed its way into brains some nine million times.

It's been stuck in my head for two days straight, by the way. Help me.

YouTube is pretty good at monetizing memes already. Its Partner Program gives creators a cut of the ad revenue, and some folks have made good money that way. But now the App Store is where it's at, and where there is money to be made, you can expect memes to follow. This isn't the first time (there are a few Nyan Cat games out there, for instance), and it sure ain't going to be the last.

But Baby Monkey (going backwards on a pig) [$0.99] has one thing over most meme-based games: it has the blessing of the original content creator, which means it's the only game where you can legitimately listen to the insanely catchy Baby Monkey song over and over and over while you play.

It's also not a bad endless runner, much to my surprise. The usual money-making scheme for memes is that you slap one on a half-assed product, obsessive people buy it and everyone wins, but the people at Kihon Games have instead brought out a game that's legitimately pretty fun. I wouldn't recommend it if you're the type to take your games very seriously, but for a casual gamer? Definitely.

It's pretty self-explanatory. An adorable baby monkey rides backwards on an adorable, determined pig across an endless field. You control the monkey with a button on the left and the pig with a button on the right. You can jump them separately � the pig to leap onto higher ground and the monkey to grab floating bananas, or one after the other to reach the highest bananas. If the monkey's on the pig when it hits an obstacle, everything comes to a screeching halt.

Managing the controls is a bit like rubbing your stomach while patting your head at first, but if you've played an endless runner before it's really just a second button and an extra row of obstacles to keep track of. The real challenge lies in getting every banana, because missing a single one will drop your score multiplier back to zero.

When you get the hang of riding the pig well enough to build an impressive score for the Game Center leaderboards, you'll probably run up against the game's two big failings. The first is the lack of multitasking support, a feature that should really be a given by now. The second is that it's all rather samey. There are different areas to run through, but the main distinction between them is which wacky obstacles are pulled out, whether it's going to be Om Nom Hamsters or, um, manure piles.

But as a ridiculously cute time waster with a stupidly catchy soundtrack, Baby Monkey knows what it's doing. Dynamically generated levels and a challenging difficulty curve will keep you entertained while you drive your friends insane playing the song on loop. The better you do, the longer you can abuse them. Sure, you could play without sound or with your own music…but why would you buy this game you were going to do that?

"Baby Monkey, baby monkey, riding on a pig, baby monkey…"

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